As a follow-up to last week's blog regarding the SEC's decision to issue guidance regarding disclosures related to climate change, the text of the guidance is now publicly available here: http://www.sec.gov/rules/interp/2010/33-9106.pdf.
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President Obama unveiled his 2011 fiscal year budget today. Unlike last year’s budget, which assumed an amount of revenue from a cap-and-trade program, this year’s budget contains only a place holder for such revenue. Of couse, the establishment of the cap-and-trade program faces a tough road in Congress.
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Today, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 to issue guidance for how publicly traded companies should handle reporting related to climate change. The SEC considered and approved “a recommendation to publish an interpretive release to provide guidance to public companies regarding the Commission's current disclosure requirements concerning matters relating to climate change.”
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Tonight, President Obama will give the annual State of the Union address and he will likely make a push for passing climate change legislation in 2010. Climate change legislation is currently not at the top of the Senate’s agenda, and it appears the President hopes that his speech will give it the nudge it needs to move forward. He recognizes that moving the bill forward won’t be easy.
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In his State of the State address last week, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson highlighted his administration's recent efforts to earn the moniker "the Clean Energy State" through efforts such as implementation of an aggressive renewable portfolio standard, creation of the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority, and passage of a number of clean energy tax incentives he described as "the most comprehensive package” in the country, as well as further incentivizing solar energy development. He also announced plans to push forward with three major legislative initiatives intended to address climate change in the state.
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Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has introduced her long anticipated resolution regarding EPA’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding. The simple, nine-line resolution states, "Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to the endangerment finding entitled 'Endangerment and Cause and Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under the Clean Air Act' . . . and such rule shall have no force or effect."
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In an important decision, EPA suggests that integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology cannot be ruled out as best available control technology (BACT) for a pulverized coal power plant without a searching (and likely case-by-case) examination of whether IGCC would alter design elements "inherent" to the purpose of the proposed project or would achieve pollution reductions "without disrupting [the applicant's] basic business purpose." As this decision plays out, utilities could eventually be forced to construct IGCC plants rather than proposed pulverized coal plants. And, as IGCC is most often viewed as a method of controlling GHG emissions, the EPA's forthcoming regulation of GHGs makes this eventuality more likely. The bottom-line is that the thinking displayed in EPA's decision may accelerate the date on which control equipment and design changes focused on limiting GHG emissions will need to be employed in order to construct a new or modified source.
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As the first step in full-blown litigation over EPA's endangerment finding for GHG emissions, a group of agriculture, mining, and energy interests has filed a petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
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Environmentalists have been pushing for expansion of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and it appears they may finally be getting their wish. It appears that the Obama Administration may issue an executive order that would add climate change as one of the factors that federal agencies must consider when reviewing projects and policies under NEPA.
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The Michigan State Department of Environmental Quality has issued an air permit for a new coal fired power plant. The new $2 billion, 830 MW plant designed by Consumer Energy will be built so that carbon capture and storage technology can be added in the future. Consumer Energy plans to retire five older plants once this plant is online and operational, which many expect to be in 2017. Robert McCann of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said, “You're taking some of the oldest and most antiquated plants out of production. We’ll see a significant reduction in emissions.”
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